Chronologies
China - Korea
Chronology from Jan 2002 to Mar 2002
: A candlelight vigil by some 1,000 Korean-Chinese workers in Seoul is held to protest South Korean government policies toward migrant workers.
: South Korean Foreign Minister Choi Sung-hong meets in Beijing with PRC Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan to brief him on the purpose of a planned April 3-5 trip to Pyongyang by Lim Dong-won, President Kim Dae-jung’s special envoy, and to discuss disputes over China’s policy toward North Korean defectors hiding in China.
: North Korean defectors and human-rights activists protest China’s policy toward North Korean refugees in front of the Chinese Embassy in Seoul, and threaten to launch a campaign to boycott the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
: The worst “yellow dust” storm in 18 years hits Seoul, leading to plant and school closings and posing a serious health hazard for Korean residents.
: Forty-three Chinese tourists disappear from their tour group after passing through customs at Incheon International Airport, sparking a nationwide search.
: Twenty-five North Korean defectors, supported by a coalition of international human-rights activists, enter the Spanish Embassy in Beijing and request asylum. PRC authorities promptly arrange for their transfer to the Philippines, with onward travel to Seoul.
: Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun meets with Wang Jiarui, deputy head of the External Liaison Commission of China’s Communist Party, to discuss inter-Korean dialogue and Seoul-Beijing relations.
: China completes a procedural investigation as a precursor to determining whether anti-dumping charges on Korean polyester stale fiber are warranted.
: China refuses for the second time in two months to issue visas to South Korean lawmakers responsible for preparing a bill that would allow millions of ethnic Koreans into the country to visit and work in Korea freely.
: Kim Ha-joong, the ROK ambassador to China, and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi follow up ratification of an extradition treaty between the PRC and South Korea set to take effect April 11.
: The ROK Ministry of Information and Communication announces that Korea and China will sign a memorandum of understanding the next month on cooperation in fourth generation mobile communication technology.
: Seoul expresses concern to Beijing over a series of homicides in China involving Korean victims, calling for a thorough probe of the incidents.
: Business leaders from the ROK, Japan, and China announce they will launch the inaugural meeting of a joint business consultative body, tentatively named “Korea-Japan-China Business Forum,” during the second half of this year in Seoul.
: China’s customs bureau announces that South Korea was China’s sixth largest trading partner last year, after Japan, the United States, the European Union, Hong Kong, and ASEAN.
: Chinese authorities arrest a North Korean defector with South Korean citizenship at an airport in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, when he tried to board a flight for South Korea with his daughter and granddaughter, who did not have proper travel documents.
: Maritime police arrest 20 Korean-Chinese who attempted to illegally enter Korea from Dalian, PRC, at the port of Gunsan, North Jeolla Province.
: Incheon International Airport Customs will toughen drug surveillance in response to drug smuggling, most of which is suspected to involve methamphetamines smuggled from China.
: The Korea Economic Research Institute projects that a three-way free trade agreement with Japan and China would improve Korea’s trade balance by $12 billion annually.
: Seoul City plans to develop a “little Chinatown” in selected districts in western Seoul, building upon a Chinese community there.
: South Korean Minister of Information and Communications Yang Sung-taek announces that Korea will participate in China’s second bid for CDMA equipment in the first quarter of the year with mobile telecom equipment based on the cdma200-1x format.
: National Assembly Speaker Lee Man-sup meets with Chinese leaders in Beijing to discuss the situation on the Korean Peninsula and Sino-South Korean relations.
: South Korea slashes tariffs on 250 imported products from China by about 30 percent and China cuts tariff rates by 3.6 percentage points on 691 Korean products in accordance with China’s joining the Bangkok Agreement.